Hillsage

I'm from the 'high plains' of western Kansas where they say there's a pretty girl behind every tree. I always like to say it took me 22 years to find....a tree....and I married her. But, that another whole God testimony too. Short story is; We were married in November of 1972.

I was born in 1949 and raised a Roman Catholic. I got my girlfriend pregnant at 19 in 1968. 4 months later I divorced her. I was told that "The church's" stance was, if I got a divorce, I couldn't take communion or get remarried again, unless my first wife died....but be sure to keep coming and giving the church my money.....until the day I died. That simply made me feel like I had committed some kind of unpardonable sin and was headed to hell anyway. That made me mad enough to give God 'a finger' (guess). I then swore to Him that if I was going to go to Hell, then I was going to make sure I had a front row seat. And for the next 4 years I say I committed just about every sin but killing a human or bestiality. I got born again during the Jesus Revolution in the summer of '72'. The night I got saved I was selling drugs, drawing unemployment and working in my uncle's bar one night a week for cash...so I wouldn't loose getting the unemployment check.

THE CALL
The night I actually got born again was in 1972. I was selling drugs, drawing unemployment and working one night a week in a bar for cash (to not lose my unemployment $). A girl had come in to the bar earlier that week and invited me to come to her house to; "Hear some Jesus freak (from a town 30 miles away) come and lay a rap on us." The Jesus movement was getting big then and actually had caught my interest because it wasn't 'traditional' and was considered a bit 'rebellious' to 'the church', which fit my shoulder length curls just perfectly. I went to her house 'that night' and knocked on the door. She answered and said my name. I responded; “Well, you invited me!” Which was true, she had, but she never figured I'd show up. Did I mention I had a bit of a 'reputation'? Anyway, she welcomed me in, turned and bumped into a guy. She said; “Oh, Jack...Hey Jack, this is D, D this is Jack, he's the one speaking tonight.” Jack stuck his hand out and said “Hi D, I'm glad to meet you.” I reached back, and when our hands touched I physically felt something thump me on the chest/heart. It shocked me and my alert button was ringing “What the he_ _ck!!!”

SALVATION
He shared his whole testimony that night....period. No altar call etc. I
left, got into my 57 Chevy, held the steering wheel a bit, dropped my
head and said; “God 'I know you exist', and I can 'know you', and not just 'know about you'. Help me quit smoking cigarettes.” Then I lit up a
joint and drove off. I know, I know...and I agree...I was a carnal Christian. But my life changed that night. For one week I never even had a
desire to smoke a cigarette and I was joyously and excitedly witnessing 'that fact', as well as Jesus, openly to all. Needless to say, I never had
to get rid of my bad company friends, which was all I had. They all thought I'd overdosed on Jesus and disappeared. I was alone and never
knew what to do next. I knew that what I received that night, through a guy from another town, I'd never received in 19 years of being in the
“One, true, holy, Catholic and apostolic church whose roots went all the way back to Peter.” I also figured that if 'THE church' was wrong,
how could any of these Johnny come lately churches be right either? So I decided that all the Jesus freaks I was seeing those days, were 'all
carrying bibles around'. That was something I'd never even had. So I went shopping and found a paperback copy of the NT. It was in the
'milk toast' Good News for Modern Man translation. Surveying it, I decided it was a pretty fat book to read to I decided to just skip to the last chapter to see how it ended. IOW the first 'book' I ever read was the book of the Revelation. Freaked me out!!! I remember thinking; “GOD is
getting ready to dump on this world and I ain't ready!!!

BAPTISM OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
Sometime after that I ran into a high school buddy who was a fairly new Christian. He and his wife took me and my new girlfriend to one of
the many bible study fellowships which were everywhere in those days of the Jesus Freak Movement. One night we were meeting in a
basement filled with high school kids younger than us. After the meeting I was approached by a young married couple. They introduced
themselves and asked me if I'd like to come over to their house and “Get into some of the deeper spiritual things in the bible?” We went and
ART who was a grade school band teacher took the four of us and one other brother from the group that night, through the book of Acts. We
read every scripture on the baptism of the Holy Spirit. When he finished Art looked right at me and said;“WOULD YOU LIKE TO RECEIVE?” Scared me to death. I am a quick thinker though and immediately gave the Christian-eze answer; “I want to pray about this!!!” (Just get me the heck out of here tonight.) Art then turned to the others and said; “Well what about the rest of you?” They, like a deer in the headlights all said; “We're with Dee, we want to pray about this.” Art was obviously disappointed, but brightened up and said; “OK, how about this. How about you all go home and read the scriptures you wrote down tonight. Pray about them, and then we'll meet back here on Friday (?) night?” Sounded good and we did. Upon reading and praying the rest of the week I knew that I knew that I WANTED it. We all went back that night, and everyone of us received the baptism with tongues. I personally spoke for about 15 minutes non stop while they ministered it to all the others, since I went first. Art was ecstatic since they'd never had everybody all receive before. He decided that God had his hand on this group and asked if we'd all like to start meeting as a bible study group and he would disciple us. We all excitedly agreed. He asked what night we wanted to meet on? Some one said; “We're all fill with the Holy Ghost lets just pray and ask God. Art was a bit 'deer in the headlight' then, but agreed. We circled in his living room, knelt on the floor and all started praying in tongues...for a while. Then slowly it got quieter and quieter. Art finally broke the silence and asked what we got. No body wanted to say. Finally someone said; “Well I might as well go first because I got THREE nights. Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and I don't know which ONE it is. Every one of us had received the very same 'word'. Except for me. I had those same nights PLUS a flashing red light on Sunday. So I decided I was supposed to start going to church somewhere. Which I did, with my girlfriend...to the Lutheran church. Art discipled the five of us for three nights a week....for the next 2 years.

<><~~You can’t grasp what you can’t comprehend, you can’t comprehend what you aren’t familiar with~~><>
<><~~ I never did find Jesus! I WAS LOST and HE FOUND ME. He was and is, "THE GOOD SHEPHERD"~~~><>